What works in tackling modern slavery? The United Nations University (UNU) and Alliance 8.7 — a global multi-stakeholder alliance dedicated to fighting modern slavery, human trafficking, and forced and child labour — have today launched a two-year project to accelerate global efforts to generate, exchange, and ensure the uptake of knowledge that can answer that question.

The initiative will aggregate and animate the best available data, evidence, and analysis from around the world, and make it more accessible and useful to scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and other key user audiences (including business).

The initiative is funded through grants from the United Kingdom’s Modern Slavery Innovation Fund (GBP 1.3 million) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), with support from the US Department of Labor.

The “Alliance 8.7 Knowledge Platform” takes its name from the alliance of countries, civil society actors, international organisations, and business dedicated to achieving Target 8.7 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). That target commits UN member states to “take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour [and] end modern slavery and human trafficking” by 2030, and to “end child labour” by 2025.

“This exciting project will help us figure out what works in the fight against slavery, trafficking, and forced and child labour, and ensure future efforts are based on that knowledge,” said the project’s director Dr James Cockayne, Head of the UNU Office at the United Nations in New York.

“Thanks to the support of the British and American governments and the ILO, we now have the chance to create a truly global, science-based conversation about what makes people vulnerable to forced labour, child labour, slavery, and human trafficking — and to figure out how to respond.”

The UNU Office at the United Nations in New York is recruiting several positions for this initiative. See the Available Positions section of the unu.edu website.